Forming the Next Generation of Catholic Leaders

Good afternoon, everyone. So glad to have you here today. My name is Rich Loesing. I’m the Director of Mission Advancement here at the Napa Institute, and we’re very excited for you to be here—not only because we have a great panel with us today, but because it’s a really important topic, and one that I think is essential as we look to the future of the Catholic Church: forming the next generation of Catholic leaders.

Our panelists today have some great experience with organizations that are doing just that. At the NE (Napa Institute), you may know that our mission is empowering Catholic leaders to renew the Church and transform the culture. As we look to the future of our organization, it’s really important to think about what that looks like—how we’re going to accomplish those goals—but perhaps most importantly, who is going to be the future of the Catholic Church.

That’s why I’m really looking forward to introducing our panelists and letting you hear about who they are, what they’re doing at their organizations, and how it fits into this changing and evolving landscape of Catholic leadership.

With me today, we have Peter Blute. He is the Executive Director of Young Catholic Professionals—or YCP for short. We also have Miss Emma Boyle, who’s the Director of Operations for the Leonine Forum. And finally, we have John Cannon, who is the founder of Sent Ventures.

I’m going to turn it over to them and give them a few minutes each to talk about who they are, their organization, and how what they do is helping to form Catholic leaders for now and the future.

Young Catholic Professionals

Rich:
So let’s start with you, Peter. Tell us a little about yourself and what Young Catholic Professionals is doing.

Peter Blute:
Yeah, it’s great to see a lot of familiar faces here over the years. Mother Teresa talked about how in the United States, we are materially rich, but there’s a real poorness of spirit. We think about and talk about that a lot at YCP—Young Catholic Professionals.

Our target demographic—many of you are in it here in this room—is people in their 20s and 30s, single, married, across every industry: blue-collar, white-collar jobs. But so many today are deeply struggling with a sense of identity, of who they are, a feeling of disconnection. At least a third of young people today are struggling with a deep sense of loneliness.

I just learned recently that healthcare professionals say that that deep sense of loneliness is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day—basically chain smoking—which was really startling to me. I think this group knows that, right? There’s this deep-seated loneliness in the world today. People are seeking connections.

So YCP is one of the places that’s doing that—providing that for young people. As they come out of college, they get thrown into the working world—assuming they kind of find a job quickly and have a place to land—and suddenly they’re experiencing this barrage of all that the world has to throw at them.

Most of them aren’t going to come work for great values-aligned ministries or CESs or businesses, because they don’t quite even know where to go. They’re getting all these signals from the world that they should get a job with a great salary, awesome benefits, unlimited PTO, and that they should move up quickly—all these worldly things that we know they’re seeking.

So what YCP offers them is a community—first and foremost of peers—that are experiencing the same kind of challenges in the working world today, at the earliest stages of their careers. But YCP also provides them access to mentors—those like many of you in this room, many here at Napa, in the diocese, and other amazing organizations. These are Catholic leaders who are 10, 20, 30 years ahead of them and can say, “Hey look, I made some mistakes. Here’s how to jump over this pit. Here are some ways that I actually learned and grew in my faith and my professional life—and ultimately, how I integrated those two.”

At YCP, our tagline is “Working in Witness for Christ.” So we’re bridging our work life and our faith life. How do we take these 40, 50, 60 hours a week that young people are working and help to infuse our spiritual life into it?

Ultimately, our goal is that young people can turn their work into a prayer—that everything they’re doing, from sending an email, building a spreadsheet, putting together a slide deck, or a plumber installing new plumbing in the ground for a sprinkler system—whatever it is, as St. Josemaría tells us, it can be a moment of sanctification.

We do that through a chapter-based model. We have 40 chapters across the country here in the United States, and an army of 700 volunteers that run all of those chapters. We have a staff—largely based in Dallas—that supports those chapters across the country.

It provides both a local network that kind of transcends a parish and draws from people who are in parish life—but often we’re reaching people who are not engaged in the parish, not engaged in their faith. They come to YCP often because of the professional side, but they’re still getting the faith—that’s infused into it in all these little ways throughout their experience with us.

So we’re really grateful to support the tens of thousands of young workers who come to us to find that deep-seated community, the mentors to support them, and the religious too—our chaplain, consecrated, and religious who support as the spiritual shepherds—so we can offer them the fullness of truth, beauty, and goodness that our Catholic faith, that Jesus Christ, offers us.

That’s a little bit about us—thank you.

The Leonine Forum

Rich:
Next, we have Emma Boyle, who’s the Director of Operations at the Leonine Forum. Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and what the Leonine Forum’s all about?

Emma:
Thank you, Rich—and thank you Peter and John. It’s great to be here with you all today.

The Leonine Forum is named for two Popes: Leo. Pope Leo the Great, in the fifth century, persuaded Attila the Hun to turn back from his planned sack of Rome. We think that model of the power of persuasive argument is a good one for the world today.

And then, of course, Pope Leo XIII, the father of modern Catholic social teaching. The Leonine Forum is dedicated to a renewed understanding of and love for Catholic social teaching, which is the Church’s gift to us to understand how to live the Gospel in every circumstance of our daily lives.

Every issue that arises in our society today—no matter how current or modern it might be—has an answer in the perennial wisdom of the Church.

So we bring Leonine Fellows together in Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles through a competitive application process. Upon their selection, we give them a year’s worth of dedicated formation in Catholic social teaching.

We start with the philosophical and theological foundations of faith and reason and Christian anthropology—a lot of the themes that were discussed this morning with Monsignor Shea and Dr. Truman. From there, we give them practical formation in topics like religious freedom, public bioethics, migration, and more.

From that first year of engagement, learning, study in common, and prayer together, they enter into a larger alumni network. That’s a dynamic group of about 1,000 people across the country, having started in 2013, getting together regionally and nationally for conferences, pilgrimages, and other in-person and virtual events.

The Leonine Forum has an eye on the situation: this generational transfer of leadership is going to happen—it’s just a matter of how well-formed that next generation of leaders is.

We are convinced that having the formation in place—spiritual, intellectual—and the support of not only a peer group but also the vertical support of mentor figures in the previous generation of leadership is going to prepare Leonine Fellows to be this next generation of virtuous leaders in the Church and in society.

They’re coming into every professional sector you can think of. We have a stuntwoman in LA and finance pros in New York—and everything in between. All are dedicated to this renewed love for and understanding of the social teaching of the Church.

And I have to say—I serve as the coordinator of the LA chapter of the Leonine Forum—and we are definitely the odd city out. Between D.C., Chicago, New York, and L.A., we’re more the creative types—entrepreneurs trying to start weird businesses. But like you said, it’s such a diverse group of fellows. Emma, you’re one of the captains of the ship—so we’re very blessed.

Sent Ventures

Rich:
Want you tell us a little about yourself?

John Cannon:
Yeah, thanks for having me here. I’m John Cannon, and what I work on largely emerged from my own personal journey and how God’s worked in my life and how I tried to respond to that.

I worked in the business world—I was an investment banker and started a little consulting firm after college. Kind of got away from my faith a little bit, like, uh, it’s very common these days. And just kind of had that “work hard, play hard” lifestyle.

God was cool with me. About a year after I graduated from business school, I had a very intense spiritual experience—an encounter with the Lord. Just changed everything in my life. Literally went from reading business stuff and Wall Street Journal and economics—which are not necessarily bad publications, but aren’t ultimately satisfying for the soul—and after this experience, just started tearing through spiritual books. Everything from Buddhist to Christian to Scripture.

I became very interested in kind of mystical spirituality and discovered the Carmelites in that journey. I also ended up going to confession—and that was really good—and started going to Mass regularly. And I was like, “This is amazing.” Mass became an encounter, and I realized I needed to go to Mass every day just to feel good and to be closer to God.

Saintly Leadership and Lasting Institutions

I then wanted to give everything to God. Ended up discerning religious life and joined the Discalced Carmelites, actually out in California, and was with them for some period of years in formation. I was in monasteries with Carmelites and went to seminary—studied philosophy and theology.

It was during theology studies that I became very interested… the Church had transformed my life, been such a gift for me spiritually and on a human level. And I was like, well, the Church is in crisis now, but it’s changed my life—and no one really knows about it. So how is it renewed? Not just what we do here, but in broader culture?

There was a lot of aversion to the Catholic Church, right? But it’s been renewed throughout history. So I became interested in how the Church had been renewed throughout history. So I did kind of a leadership study on saint-founders. There are a lot of leadership studies on business figures, political figures, sports figures—what about people who’ve been part of things that have lasted hundreds or over a thousand years? What are their common characteristics?

I was speaking to a group of Catholic CEOs once, and I said, “If your company’s been around for over 500 years, I want you to raise your hand.” Zero percent of people in the room raised their hand. No one’s company had been around 500 years. But, you know, the Jesuits have been around 500 years. Benedictines—1,500. No problem. Right?

Like, okay, well—what’s the recipe for success in that? What are the leadership characteristics of those founders? What’s built into the DNA of those institutions that’s stood the test of time and made dramatic impact spiritually and on a human level around the world?

Looking at about 50 of these founders—from St. Benedict to Mother Teresa, Mother Cabrini—you know, they’re holy. They’re rooted in God. That’s the foundation. And there are other characteristics too. They also happen to be quite entrepreneurial. They identify needs in their midst related to the human person—Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy—and they do something to address that, usually very organically, related to the people in their life.

Mother Teresa: A Case Study in Spirit-Led Action

Mother Teresa, for example—a lot of people don’t know—but she was a sister in India, but it was an Irish congregation. She was teaching in kind of a middle-class school in India for about 20 years. She was teaching and a school administrator. But she saw—this was during the 1940s—just abject poverty like we can’t even imagine. There was a war, and there were millions of refugees coming in from Bangladesh. Literally, she would walk outside and there would literally be bodies strewn on the street—dead bodies. This is the type of situation she was encountering.

She had permission, on her day off, to go bring a smile, bring nourishment or food to the poorest of the poor—to people living in this abject poverty. She was doing that in secret for years. For a couple of years, actually. No one really knew about it.

Eventually, she was going on a retreat and had a mystical experience where the Lord invited her: “Come be my light. Come be my light to the poorest of the poor.” It wasn’t out of the blue—I mean, it was out of the blue—but it wasn’t something she just whiteboarded in her room one day. She saw this need in her midst. She felt called, little by little, to be Christ to these people. And she was invited into a deeper journey of that.

You know, “If you’re faithful in little things, greater things will be entrusted to you.” So it’s this very organic, Spirit-led entrepreneurship that is rooted in how Christ teaches and how the Holy Spirit operates. You see this pattern in the saints over and over again.

Catholic Entrepreneurship Today

You see analogies in entrepreneurship—in startups. Some here recognize it in companies, where you say, “Okay, what’s a need I see in my midst, around me?” You know, how the founders of Hallow saw their own need for learning how to pray. I see the Presidio HealthCare guys who started the first pro-life health insurance company—saw the need that we can’t access health insurance that doesn’t fund abortion, and other things like that.

So you see this need in your midst—and respond to it. Those happen in the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy too. There’s this pattern.

So, you know, kind of saw this and then… you know, there are ecosystems that support entrepreneurs in every sector of the economy—whether it’s Silicon Valley or even governments that have innovation officers. But there’s nothing in the Catholic space that intentionally supports Catholic entrepreneur leaders.

Founding SENT: A Catholic Founder Ecosystem

So I became very compelled by that concept and ended up discerning, making the hard decision to discern out of religious life—and started SENT about four years ago. It’s really a community network for Catholic founders, builders, mission leaders, investors who want to build great companies and organizations and apostolates with God, with the Holy Spirit—to have access to community, spiritual formation, and business strategy in kind of an aligned way.

So we have a member community. We offer mentorship, coaching, resources—a community where people can connect together. We have a conference coming up, if you’re not tired of conferences after this—September, in Dallas—we have the SENT Summit. Several hundred Catholic founders, entrepreneurs, and investors will be there for that.

The bigger vision behind it is an ecosystem for Catholic entrepreneurship. Where if I’m starting a company, I want to invest, I want to build something—I can find the hub where I can plug in and find the things I need. I can find talent—people that want to work for my company that share my faith and values. I can find capital, resources, spiritual formation, partners and allies.

Some of the success stories we’ve seen in that: I was just talking this morning with a guy who’s become involved in SENT. We have these kind of peer groups—if you’re familiar with YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization)—it’s similar to that but for Catholics. So kind of peer groups for CEOs and founders. He’s been in one of those. He’s starting—I won’t go into the details—but he’s starting a Catholic tech-based company. And he met all his co-founders through SENT. They would never have met without that network and that community.

You see a lot of that in the network too. Presidio Healthcare founders are here. They came to our first conference and became inspired by seeing other founders doing this in the Catholic space. Decided to start their company. Were able to raise some capital through the network—and are getting going.

The Holy Spirit is activated in community and in relationship, fundamentally. At our core, we try to offer that community and that network of support for these builders who want to have audacious dreams and transform culture and society with God and the Holy Spirit.

What Hinders Catholic Leadership Today?

Rich:

Thank you. You know, as you all were talking, you mentioned a lot of different characteristics of strong Catholic leaders.

John, you talked a lot about Works of Mercy and spirituality, the importance of prayer in your own journey.

And Emma, you talked about formation—how do we meet people where they’re at and help them grow spiritually, internally, and in service.

And Peter, you talked a lot about living a fully integrated life, bringing all those things together.

So I guess my question for you all would be: What are some of the biggest obstacles you see in the modern world for developing Catholic leaders?
And what is your organization specifically doing to address some of those obstacles in one or several areas?

Distraction and Competing Priorities

Emma: I think it can be challenging to just capture people’s attention when there are so many—so many competing circumstances that people find themselves in.

They’re drawn towards their career, they’re drawn towards their family, towards their friends, towards their hobbies.

But it’s really conveying a vision of pursuing excellence—as Peter was saying—pursuing excellence in all of these arenas simultaneously.

It’s like Dr. Abela was talking about: cultivation of one virtue is cultivation in all virtue.

And conveying that attitude toward one’s own life and one’s personal development.

We live in a great age for like, quick-fix personal development—everything you want: the book, or the social media follow, or the quick diet that’s going to get you to your goal, you know, by this time next week.

And I think that we are—I mean, I see it in my generation, and then in like my younger brothers’—like Gen Z—peer group.

That is losing its luster. That mood is—the shine is wearing off.

And people are more interested—I mean, young people are craving authenticity.

And even though that’s an overused buzzword—forgive me for using it—they’re craving truth. Let’s say that. They are craving the truth.

They are craving excellence. And I really believe that in the kind of peer setting that both John and Peter have described, we can all be encouraged to pursue lives of excellence.

Being excellent in your job—you can be on the partner track, and you can also be on the holiness track. You can be a saint, and you can raise a family of saints, and you can excel professionally.

All of those things are possible, but again, as these gentlemen have already said, we have to do that in community.

Spiritual Entrepreneurship

John:
Yeah, so the question was the biggest barrier and how we’re addressing that?

Someone asked me once, “How do you know if you’re successful or not?” A good question, right?

And I was like, well, think about it like this: I want the high school student who’s dreaming about what they can be or could be in the future—they’ve got maybe basketball posters on their wall, or whatever rock bands are cool now (I have no idea what they are)—those kinds of things on their walls.

Entrepreneurship is kind of cool: 66% of Millennials, 75% of Gen Z, want to start a company one day. A lot of people in our culture idolize people like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs.

Social entrepreneurship has also become more popular in the past couple decades. You can build a nonprofit or a social enterprise that does good for the world—and maybe even makes money.

But what if we could paint a vision for spiritual entrepreneurship?
People could build companies, organizations, and host initiatives with God—and dream that. Maybe even have posters on their wall of saints who built that, and be inspired by them.

Overcoming Barriers with Narratives and Role Models

There are a lot of barriers to that. First, because it doesn’t even enter people’s consciousness as a possibility.

Second, even if it does, it’s like: “How do I do that?” “What does that actually look like for me?”

So painting that picture—and then pointing to success stories or case studies—is really meaningful.

One thing we do in our curriculum for the founders we work with is case studies on holy founders:

• How did Mother Teresa start out?

• Zoom in on that critical period of her life.

• Mother Cabrini.

• Mother Angelica.

• Don Bosco is a great example of a priest—but also lay people, too.

Showing those narratives and painting that picture helps.

I find that people—when they are starting their companies or organizations—it’s just so hard to keep your head above water and survive.

You’re just trying to pay yourself, someone else, have kids, you gotta provide for them. And so there’s a real tension. I think most people in this room, even if you’re not running a company, you experience this: the tension of providing and allowing into things and having a spiritual mission as well.

And being able to communicate to people that it’s possible—that when you let God into it more fully and radically—that it can be even…
You can grow even faster. Be even more powerful.

So the big thing to emphasize is having an interior life—having daily time for Mass and for prayer. I kind of argue that people who are used to thinking in terms of ROI—return on investment—for their time and energy and dollars—that prayer is actually your highest ROI.

Taking daily time for prayer—if you take 30 minutes a day for prayer—that’s the highest ROI of your time you can spend. Because you’re going to have greater clarity on where you need to go as a business and as an individual.
You’re working through problems. God’s going to make it clear how to solve it—or shut it down. You’re going to grow closer to Him—more meaning in your life.

So being able to paint the picture that this is possible, and then give people tools—especially of prayer and community—in that journey.

The Power of Role Models and Mentors for Emerging Catholic Leaders

Peter:

I think a huge one is just helping young people find great role models. This image sort of came to me recently—as you’re coming out of college, some number of hands are going to be extended to help you up to the next stage, the next level. And I think most often the autopilot that these young 20-somethings are on—even if they’re people engaged in their faith—is to accept kind of the first hand, or the hand that’s at the front of the pack.

And I think often this is the hand of someone—maybe a manager, maybe a coworker—at their work. Young people today often rely first and foremost on the people that they’re interacting with through work. And so many companies today—the hand that’s extended to them is really not seeking their best interest.

So I think part of it is helping them see the role models. There’s a number of people in this room—Jeff back here has been a major mentor and coach of mine. He’s helped me understand some really fundamental things about my life: how to orient my life for my family, at the same time as I can toward God and toward my work. And how to prioritize those.

We learn these things through role models. And I think we’re blessed with an extraordinary group of people here. Every one of you is the right role model for young people.

But if you blow that out across the workplace today, it’s tough to find these people. So I think this hurdle is addressed in many ways through awesome organizations like these—and many others—that are helping people make those connections. In our case, young people. Saying: these are the people that you can learn some things from. These are the hands you should grab as you’re seeking to make that next jump in your professional, your personal, and your spiritual development.

Rich:

Next question I want to ask is about collaboration. One thing I’ve noticed is that within the Church, especially, organizations tend to be pretty bad at collaborating with one another—both within their own industries or causes, across causes, and across generations as well.

So I guess my question for you guys is: For organizations like yours that are working with emerging leaders, current leaders—How do you see collaboration playing a role in that, not only amongst each other, but amongst different generations—maybe organizations that are more established—and working with those that are further along in their careers and spiritual journeys?

Peter:

I think it’s helpful to see kind of where we are in the journey of someone’s life, and kind of understand our particular gift to people at different stages.
Now, you can’t line everything up in a perfect timeline. But I just think about our three organizations here—And we already are collaborating in different ways.

We have a number of our YCP members right now that are applicants for Leonine in places like New York City. So Leonine is a great next step for our members. We give them this foundational community, and these mentors, and this sense of who you are and the direction you should head—And then we want to introduce them to great organizations like Leonine that they can take that next step with.

To go really deep in this wonderful kind of cohort-driven model in these certain industries where we’re gaining a foothold—having Catholic influencers there in this next generation.

And then I think about Sent. YCP isn’t specifically seeking to feed Catholic entrepreneurs in the way that they are. So those who maybe are in their first 10 years or so of professional career, and they’re really eager to build something—they have a great idea—We want them to go and spend time with John and with his community.

So if we start to orient—to kind of understand what’s our core competency—
And you’re going to get that from your members. That’s the best way to figure out what you’re actually doing to feed someone.

And then orienting toward collaboration—just conversations and partnerships. You know, there’s a lot of, I think at times, frustration expressed to me—You guys have heard this, right? That we’re all in silos and these kinds of things.

But we do have so many places that could come together. That was true with the Congress last week. I saw that. It’s absolutely true here. I think each of us has experienced that.

So there’s a lot to be hopeful for. And I think just thinking through: What do these people need that we are serving? And then: How do we give them the most that we can? Operating from a position of abundance and a growth mindset.

Whether they come to YCP or go to Leonine or to Scent almost doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It’s really more about: What do you need?
And how can we help connect you in this Catholic ecosystem? Because there are so many different ways. This is just a couple of the organizations. Many of you are leading other apostolates, or know of other groups that are feeding people in other ways.

So I actually see a lot more collaboration today. I’ve been in this world 10 years—most of my career at this point. But I see so much more of it now.
And I think it’s really beautiful how a lot of that is coming to life.

The Need for More Ministries for Young Professionals and Catholic Leaders

John:
Yeah, sure. Great question.

I think, well, one—stepping back and being able to say, you point out there are three organizations here that are serving people, you know, maybe out of college to 40 or whatever years old, and kind of younger Catholics in the professional space.

But I wish there were more. I mean, how many fast food options do you have? How many choices do you have for so many aspects of your life? And if there are more groups and organizations or ministries that are serving people in different and unique ways—where the genuine and Holy Spirit is activated in that—I think that’s a good thing on the whole.

So just being able to step back and recognize that. And there may be many charisms in that. Think about—not saying this is a one-to-one analogy—but think about the Middle Ages: the Dominicans, Franciscans, and all these other groups starting to have a unique charism and a different focus. That’s beautiful—how the Holy Spirit is activated in very particular ways.

And time will tell what that looks like in our groups, because you have to be very careful about assuming that in an early stage of an entity. But I think that’s a good thing on the whole.

That said, being able to collaborate—because we’re all on the same team and the same side—is generally good. Then obviously, you’ve got to figure out what that looks like in the concrete practicals of life. Like, okay, well, specifically, what is it we need to collaborate on, and how do we do that? And have small wins, and find ways of doing that more intentionally.

One of the things I’ve seen that’s been great is just behind-the-scenes collaboration, where like Peter or Emma give me advice and help coach us or give us guidance that no one else sees—in a genuine way.

Same with Mitch and the Leonine Forum. I was in Leonine Forum—I was in development—and learning from that process. Or conversations that we’ve had, Rich. So I think that’s very powerful.

And then, in a more public-facing way, finding ways where we can share our charisms in a particular way.

So like, to the extent I can call it that—which isn’t really fair—but the things that we do well, the things we emphasize, our core competencies, as you called it—probably more accurate—being able to help support something in entrepreneurship, or the entrepreneurship track and what we’re doing here. Same with Leonine Forum.

So I think just finding those specific ways to cross-pollinate and support are generally good, but can be challenging in the day-to-day.

The Importance of Generosity, Creativity, and Opportunity

Emma:
Yeah, I would echo everything that Peter and John have said. This is not a zero-sum game. We’re not competing for the same 2% of a market share.

So fostering a spirit of generosity and creativity, and really seeing the opportunity to cultivate those virtues—among others—is only going to make each of our missions flourish individually. And in turn, it’s going to help all of us to be better collaborators and better co-workers in the vineyard.

We’ve seen in the Leonine Forum, time and time again, that just providing the opportunity for people to meet and interact is really all it takes.

You just open the door, open a couple bottles of wine, buy some cheese—and then people get together, solve problems, and get things done.

We had this amazing story earlier this year. One of our Leonine Fellows is the Vice President of the National Preeclampsia Board. She’s a Catholic and a lawyer. The president of the board is an Orthodox Christian.

They realized they had an opportunity to enshrine pro-life language in the bylaws of the organization, so that these vulnerable moms—facing this really serious health situation in their pregnancies—will be encouraged to choose pro-life options for themselves and their babies.

This fellow called me and said, “I need an OBGYN who can be right there with me. Someone I don’t have to explain myself to—we can just get to work.”

And we had someone in our network in Orange County. Now, this incredible national organization has a stronger pro-life stance.

All we did was lay the groundwork—sort of prime the field—for that interaction to bear fruit. That’s just one story. I’m sure if we all started sharing stories, we’d be here all night.

Generational Collaboration

Peter:
Something you said really struck me—just interacting with people.

Sometimes us younger people—Millennials and below—have the urge to say, “Okay, Boomer,” you know? Like, “You don’t get us young folks. You do your thing; we’ll do ours.”

But demonstrating the value we’re bringing—not just to the Church but to business, to the economy, to our social relationships and beyond—is so important.

I’ll tell a quick story. Tim Bush, when we hosted our Faith in Business Conference last fall, the Leonine Forum sent over 30 fellows to join the conference. That display of enthusiasm and the quality of people that Leonine sent allowed Tim to say, “Wow, this is incredible. I want to get more involved with this organization.”

Fast forward: their new Director of Mission Advancement is a Leonine Fellow. The founder of Leonine Forum sits on our speaker committee. And this year, we have five Leonine Fellows speaking on the main stage at the Summer Conference in different capacities.

So I think demonstrating value, getting out into the world, and interacting with the people and organizations we want to be a part of—now and into the future—is just so important.

I think I can speak for everyone here that we’re—not surprised, but really encouraged that you all are here.

It’s not just that we have some charming, good-looking panelists here—but it shows that you guys see this as an issue we need to tackle together as a Church: as apostolates, organizations in the nonprofit sector, the for-profit sector, and everything in between.

So thank you all for being here. I’d like to conclude by asking each of you: what’s one takeaway you hope our audience walks away with today?

John:
I’ll give two quick ones.

First, I think we have a lot to be hopeful for. We are people of hope—and that’s really important. I’m an optimist by nature, so it’s easier for me to say this, but I do think we have a lot to look forward to in this next generation of leaders.

Second, we can ask more of these young people. Rich said that really well. Sometimes they need an invitation, but you all can be the ones to say, “Come help us.” They have a lot to offer—and they want to—but they’re not always as proactive.

I think many of them are poised and ready to support and help, whether it’s in a parish, apostolate, or work setting. We can ask more of them.

Emma:
I’ll add two things.

One, the Lord is not outdone in generosity. So when we ask more of young people, they will deliver—and the Lord will multiply that.

We can’t predict it, can’t forecast it, can’t budget for it. But we can be ready to receive the gift when it arrives—with gratitude.

Second, the harvest is abundant and the laborers are few. There’s work for all of us to do. We should be encouraged every day for the opportunity that provides.

John:
Do I get two short things, or one long thing?

Yeah, just—prayer is the highest ROI of your time.

You can’t pray all day, but prayer is so vital. That daily time for prayer—it’s such a gift and so transformative in all aspects of our life and leadership.

And two: being open to being part of something new. That may look different—it may mean starting something yourself, joining a team, being a mentor, or investing philanthropically.

But be open. Listen to how God might invite you to be part of something new. Listen for His call.

One, the Lord is not outdone in generosity. So when we ask more of young people, they will deliver—and the Lord will multiply that.

We can’t predict it, can’t forecast it, can’t budget for it. But we can be ready to receive the gift when it arrives—with gratitude.

Second, the harvest is abundant and the laborers are few. There’s work for all of us to do. We should be encouraged every day for the opportunity that provides.